Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series: Budgeting and ...

Strengthening Public Expenditure Management in Africa 423
if the budget process is extremely weak and corrupt, radical changes may
be the only way to improve it.
Consider carefully the probable effect on individuals’ behavior, especially
in multiethnic societies or very small economies. For example, performance
bonuses for public employees (which have a negative record in general) can
lead in African countries to patronage, discrimination, internal resentments
and conflict, and a generic loss of productivity.
Understand clearly the different uses and limitations of input, output,
outcome, and process indicators, and tailor the use of each to the specific
sector and issue in question.
If performance systems are introduced, ensure robust monitoring, with
swift and predictable consequences. Nothing causes reforms to fail faster
than the realization that no rewards will be given for good performance
and no penalties will be given for underperformance.
Ensure systematic feedback from front-line staff, service users, and
the public.
Moving Toward Results
The following sequence can be sketched of the desirable steps in introducing
performance- and results-orientation into the budget system (which, to
reiterate, does not at all require a wholesale transformation of the system
into program or performance budgeting):
Pick two or three major expenditure programs in government departments
that provide important services directly to the public.
Introduce performance indicators for these programs that are few, simple,
clear, and hard to manipulate; that can be monitored; and that do not
carry high data collection costs. To the fullest extent possible, these indicators
ought to be developed with the participation of front-line personnel
and the service users themselves (though the final decisions and the
monitoring require involvement by the central core ministries).
Monitor closely the functioning and effect of the measures, again with
reference to the views of front-line personnel and service users, and modify
or adjust as needed, mindful of the risk of creating perverse incentives as
the agents modify their behavior to adapt to the performance system.
Build in provisions for the systematic assessment of the performance of
the performance measurement system itself.
Use the performance indicators systematically in the dialogue during
budget preparation, but postpone to a much later stage any direct link to